RIP Patrick Coyne (OG 1945)

On Monday, 4 November 2019 Patrick Coyne (OG 1945) passed away.

Patrick Coyne penned the history of the school “Cross of Gold” released for the schools 150th in 1998.

He attended St George’s Grammar School from 1936 to 1945, during which time he experienced the headmastership of both Rev CC Tugman and Mr PE Cuckow. He was a boarder at Bloemendal during 1939 and played cricket (captaining the U/14 XI) and 1st XV rugby. In his Matric year, he was a prefect and captain of Shaw house.

After trying out careers in banking and wholesale pharmaceuticals he enrolled at the Johannesburg Collage of Education and obtained a teacher’s diploma. Following this he was awarded a bursary from the South African National Council for the Deaf to study at the University of Manchester, for a Certificate for Teachers of the Deaf and subsequently taught at the Royal School for the Deaf in Margate, Kent, before returning to South Africa in 1953.

He taught at St Vincent’s School for the Deaf in Johannesburg for five years before being appointed Principal at Fulton School for the Deaf in Gillits, Natal. He then joined the Natal Education Department as an assistant teacher at Warner Beach Primary School and was promoted to vice-principal at Addington Primary School and later to the acting principal ships of Northlands and Windsor Park Primary School.

His first principal’s post was at Williams Hartley School, but other headships followed at Park View Senior Primary and Atholton Primary in Umhlanga Rocks.

On retiring in 1998, he turned his time to hobbies: restoring and running old Rover cars, re-building the Coyne voice pitch indicator (invented by his father), photography, acting in the producing amateur plays, and writing. Three of his radio plays have been broadcast by the SABC and several short stories and articles have been published in magazines.

For two years he was lured back to teaching computer science at Gordon Road Girls’ School, before returning to his hobbies and writing about his alma mater – St George’s Grammar School.

Patrick is survived by his wife Helen (Wilson) and two children, Marion and Christopher.

Clippings from The Mercury Newspaper 6 and 7 November 2019